Right, then, I suppose that much as we’d all love to luxuriate here all day, this is us. England haven’t won a Test match for 0 days, 0 hours and 33 minutes. They have won one 0 days, 0 hours and 33 minutes ago. O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!

Athers asks Anderson about something Moores told the senior players - to relax and enjoy the game. There was a different atmosphere in the field, apparently, and the ball swung in both innings. But he’s not sure whether or not he’s confident about his hearing tomorrow.

Athers picks out Buttler and Moeen, and Cook praises the latter for the improvements he’s made, explaining that he’s been a part-timer at Worcestershire, behind Ajmal. But he’s responded well to the demands of Test cricket - the lines, and the need to hold, he says. And of Buttler, he comments that he came in in a good situation, “so exciting to watch”, and also that you didn’t notice his keeping, so it must’ve been good too. No apology is forthcoming.

He’ll never forget the reception he got when he came off unbeaten at lunch on the first day, and explains that at Lord’s, he felt like he was coming back into touch. “Getting back into the ball is pretty vital to my game, I’m pretty good against the short ball, getting head and feet back”, he explains.

Alastair Cook says happy is a better word than relieved, when the latter is offered him by Athers. Then the usual stuff about scoring runs, everyone contributing and that kind of thing - will he be asked about his own contribution?

He also says that they lost too many wickets last night - though it’s hard to see that the match wasn’t over by then. He explains that they didn’t bother with a fifth bowler because they’d barely used one in the first two Tests - though doesn’t say that in the absence of Sharma, they fancied a draw on a flat track here, nor that there’s a difference between Binny and Ashwin. He also reckons that the batsmen should show more patience on these wickets, and that Sharma won’t be fit for Old Trafford.

Dhoni: “I don’t think we played good cricket ... well ... we played the fast bowlers well but Moeen ... we didn’t play him well. He bowled good lines ... but we let him bowl well... we need to get a bit more positive against him.”

Isn’t pressure a funny thing. Alastair Cook, for so long so pervious, made a trickier decision than seems the case now in electing to bat, and in so doing put himself right in its path. Only a week ago, his shot to get off the mark was ironically and embarrassingly cheered at Lord’s, but this time, with the aid of Jadeja’s drop, he handled himself. India, meanwhile, could not respond to the scoreboard, their undressing by Moeen evidence of precisely that - well though he bowled. The next Test is going to be a jazzer - can we go to Old Trafford this afternoon?

What a performance this has been! As near perfect as you’ll get in a team sport - admittedly, with the help of a coin flip and complicit opposition, but still. This might be a moment in time - one that signals the emergence of a new England side - or it might just be a moment. But, either way, it is pleasant.

It’s been 17 hours and 353 days, since you took your love away, ahhhhhh ahhhhhh ahhhhh ahhhhh ahhhhhh. I stay in every night, and bitch all day, since you took your love away, ahhhhhhh ahhhhhh ahhhhhh ahhhhhh ahhhhh.

66th over: India 170-9 (Rahane 52, Pankaj 1) Pankaj, nipples akimbo, presses into the off side and sets off, sent back sharply. Rahane consoles him with a pat on the prodigious chest, and Woakes delivers a bumper, that’s not far off the gloves and elicits a strong appeal. Next ball, Pankaj turns one into the leg side, and they amble a single, before, from the final one, Rahane times a four through the covers to get to fifty. He salutes with a mixture of weariness and resignation.

“Having done a little research,” says Jamie Askew, “I have found the following, rather interesting stats. Turns out it is pretty insignificant. You could say captains shouldn’t give a toss on which side the coin falls.”

64th over: India 157-9 (Rahane 40, Pankaj 0) Don’t tell anyone, but I’m beginning to think that England have a chance here. But, as if to prove me wrong, Rahane, slices over point for two, and then grabs a single from the final delivery.

Back to the toss, Jonah Sack emails with the economical solution: “Whoever wins the toss gets to bid for the right to bat or bowl first. So, for example, on this pitch the winning tosser (sorry) might have said to the loser, ‘I’ll give you 75 runs if we can bat first.’ The loser either accepts the bid, or else rejects it, in which case his team has to give up 75 runs for the right to bat.In the world of real possibilities, though, I endorse the idea that the touring captain always chooses. If this gets the groundsmen on the sub-continent to sort out their batsmen’s paradises, so much the better.”

WICKET! Shami b Ali 0 (India 154-9)

This is something! Fivefer for Moeen! On average, he’s bowling 3.4mph faster than earlier in the summer, when batsmen attacked him without compunction, and you can see the difference. This is a ripper, pitching outside off, and Shami, backing away, is beaten by turn and pace - the ball snaps the top of leg stump!

62nd over: India 153-8 (Rahane 36, Shami 0) Woakes slants one into Rahane, what a ball this is, and he’s beaten in the forward press. One from the over.

“Cricketers of undoubted top-class. less predictable than Stuart Broad? asks John Cox. “Keith Miller? (Or Phil Edmonds, possibly, although only for his celebrated reply to critics who suggested that one bouncer to Richard Hadlee was an acceptable surprise weapon but that two was petulance – ‘well, if you think he was surprised by the first one you should have seen how surprised he was by the second.’)”

Not sure old Philippe was quite that good, but Miller is “a good shout”, “for me”.

WICKET! Kumar c Anderson b Ali 0 (India 152-8)

Alastair Cook is on one, James Brown and Mike Brearley all mixed! He alters the field before Moeen’s fifth ball, sticking in a gully, and when the ball turns more than expected, the lunge to meet it sends an inside edge into the pad. Anderson, there for the outside edge, duly snatches with intense glee, and the part-timer has 4-50!

WICKET! Jadeja b Ali 15 (India 152-7)

Moeen, Moeen, Moeen, Moeeeeeeen. The first ball of his over is so full it’s almost belching, and Jadeja, espying runs, smites it through the covers. Except he misses, and looks at his stumps, affecting confusion. I’d tell David Boon.

60th over: India 152-6 (Rahane 35, Jadeja 15) Woakes delivers five dots, and then finds some natural variation, the ball keeping low as Rahane moves across - across sufficiently far so that when he’s hit on the pad, he appears out. There’s a yelp, but the verdict is not out - and it’s a good one, because it was going down. Maiden.

59th over: India 152-6 (Rahane 35, Jadeja 15) Something to ponder: has there ever been a cricketer of undoubted top-class less predictable than Stuart Broad (who should, of course, be rested for this Test). Jadeja smuggles one from outside off to mid-on and Bell dives to stop - he’s not far off creating a run out opportunity, but they manage a single. Then, Rahane times a leg glance, sending Broad off on a chase - one he wins, saving a single on the rope, for reasons not entirely clear.

58th over: India 148-6 (Rahane 32, Jadeja 14) Woakes continues, and Jadeja pulls him to backward square leg, where Anderson fields. This has been the best I’ve seen Woakes bowl for England, and though it’s still hard to see where he fits in long-term, it would not be unfair where he to nab a wicket.

Anyway, here’s John Wallen: “Recently, Graham Gooch said Cooke’s run of low scores was no longer simply a question of bad form. According to Gooch, test bowling attacks had worked out Cooke’s weaknesses and now knew how to keep him quiet and dismiss him almost at will. Does Cooke’s success in this game refute Gooch’s point? Or did the Indians simply let him off the hook by not bowling to him very well? Worst possibility of all, is it all just sour grapes from Gooch because he was dismissed as England batting coach?”

Definitely not the latter - I suspected it in the first instance, checked the context, and it was delivered with love. What I think I saw in this Test is just better judgement, a determination to get forward, and the desire to drive. Doesn’t mean the faults are gone - they may never go - but he’s begun to figure out a way of combatting them.

OBO housekeeping, via Robin Hazelhurst: “Better get this in quick before the match is over... Highlight of the cricketing year (for some), the OBOccasionals are playing their annual tour match this weekend in Finland. Anyone who finds themselves around Helsinki on Saturday or Sunday is most welcome to join in, just drop me a line.

And more importantly, the Occasionals now have a second match lined up this summer on bank holiday Monday, 25 August, in Watford. It will be a charity match and should feature a team from the Guardian sports desk no less! So anyone who fancies flinging some chin music or some legside dross at, er, Daniel Harris et al, please get in touch for details.”

Unfortunately, I’ll be OBOing, to, er no one - so apologies for that. Send interests to me, and I’ll forward them on.

57th over: India 147-6 (Rahane 32, Jadeja 13) Jadeja turns Ali to mid on and earns a single, Moeen responding by going over the wicket and bowling a little straighter. But then he provides slightly more width, and Rahane waits for him, then pushes hard through the covers for four. Lovely shot, and drinks.

56th over: India 142-6 (Rahane 28, Jadeja 12) On comes Woakes, his loosener a jaffa - it’s just back of a length, drawing Rahane forward then nipping away and beating his edge. Rahane then softhands one past third slip four for - England won’t mind that, because it’s eminently get wrongable.

Meawnhile, Simon Hudd sends in the below, on behalf of his pal (no need to boast) Sean Scott - and Sean’s gran. “Appropriate given she is a mad cricket fan although she is probably getting sick of the number of novelty cricket themed cards pouring in from everywhere. My grandma, Sybil Elizabeth Dawson of Campbelltown, New South Wales turns 101 today. It’s a huge milestone in anyone’s life obviously but made all the more remarkable by what she has managed to pack into her 101 years to date.

Born during WW1, saw off WW2 as part of the womens’ auxiliary war effort helping to repel the Japanese. Raised 7 step children after marrying my grandfather and then a further 6 children of her own. Worked all her life and still lives on her own in her own flat (although understandably now has someone in to give her a hand from time to time). They really don’t make them like her anymore.

The only person I know who has actually seen Don Bradman play cricket in real life, although she rates Boycott and Gavaskar as the two best batsmen of all time! Well you can’t have everything.”

55th over: India 136-6 (Rahane 22, Jadeja 12) Jadeja is beginning to feel comfortable, cracking another wide one from Moeen for four - the only runs off the over.

“Your preamble put me in mind of No Country For Old Men,” emails Simon Bell, “and specifically this bit (as rendered by the Coens. I’d love to know what Anton Chiguhr would do faced with a greentop and a bit of a crosswind. ‘“How does a man decide in what order to abandon the decision to bat first?”

54th over: India 132-6 (Rahane 22, Jadeja 8) Presumably this will be Anderson’s final over in this spell - it’s his sixth. He’s bowled mainly in short spells this match, which you’d think has helped, though it’s hard to view it without the prism of scoreboard pressure, which facilitates that kind of thing. Rahane gets himself a single to midwicket, and the Jadeja bumps a short one to square leg. They run two, and then another when the throw breaks the stumps and no one’s backing up. Lazy fielding, window into the team’s soul.

53rd over: India 128-6 (Rahane 21, Jadeja 5) Ali gets one to turn, and it foxes Jadeja - his bowling really is improving very quickly indeed, his wickets almost all proper batsmen. If he can just learn not to avert his eyes from the short stuff, he can be a very special player. But the next ball is wide, and Jadeja clouts him to backward point, all the way to the fence.

“Why not toss up for who bats first, not for who chooses?” asks Luke Williams. We’ll pretend that he didn’t follow it with “simples”, and also that he doesn’t own a 5 cap.

51st over: India 124-6 (Rahane 21, Jadeja 1) Moeen is on to seek the rough outside Jadeja’s off-stump - I’d tell David Boon, if I were him. He’s a really interesting character, Jadeja, batting in a completely different style from how he bowls - it was his innings that clinched the Lord’s Test - and it’ll be fascinating to see how he attacks this situation. To begin with, he plays out a maiden.

50th over: India 124-6 (Rahane 21, Jadeja 1) Jadeja takes a single off an inswinger - he’s very late to the ball, but does enough to nutmeg himself with an edge.

“A few years ago, with my flat mates, we used to decide who had to do the next job (make a cuppa, go to the corner shop etc.) by using a toy gun which fired small plastic pellets which smarted a bit but not massively”, writes Sam Fox (he calls himself “Samuel”). “The gun was unreliable, and only fired every 3 or 4 goes, so we used to pass it round and play russian roulette with it till someone got shot, at which point they had to do the task. How about instigating a similar situation instead of the toss?”

You had me until “a bit but not massively”. I find war of attrition if the best way of sorting these things - whoever wants them done the most, or minds them not being done the most, eventually does them. Suitable punishment for caring about cleanliness and balanced diets, I’m sure you’ll agree.

49th over: India 123-6 (Rahane 21, Jadeja 0) Rahane’s dismissal in India’s first innings was probably the key moment in this Test - or at least the point at which you knew who was going to win. He takes a single down to long leg after Broad opens with a wide, then a leg bye brings him back on strike, and he defends well.

“Another suggestion has been that the toss is done away with altogether and the visiting captain always has the choice”, emails John Starbuck. “This is about as fair as you can get for preparing the pitch to suit everyone. Besides, weather conditions on the day are likelier to be just as important.”

Hmmm. On the sub-continent, this might be a problem, because when don’t you bat?

48th over: India 120-6 (Rahane 20, Jadeja 0) Anderson is teasing Jadeja here - best tell the match referee - with outswing followed by inswing. Jadeja makes no effort to score - no effort to score is makeable - and the final delivery, a kind of inswinging bouncer, has him weaving out of the road.

“Surely the problem with the coin toss,” emails Frank McDade, “is the lack of skill involved - pure chance. A quick game of rock, paper scissors has to be the way to go.”

That’d be fine. I once went on holiday, where we used that to settle sutff no one wanted to do - carrying bags, guiding, that kind of thing. One of our number fancied himself as a raver, so you knew that his first two shakes would always be rock, because he conducted himself as if in a nightclub. He also claimed that two of the rarest eagles in the world live on Barn Hill, Wembley.

WICKET! Dhoni c Buttler b Anderson 6 (India 120-6)

Anderson in the groove really is a brilliant bowler. And he’s in the groove, and he’s brilliant. Another fuller one moves away, drawing Dhoni’s bat like a magnet, he edges, Buttler catches leaning right, he slinks away.

47th over: India 116-5 (Rahane 20, Dhoni 2) This is better from Broad, bowling much closer to the stumps as Jordan stretches away. Rahane gets his first runs of the morning, through cover, and then leaves a fuller one before leaving another that’s very unfar from his off-peg.

I suppose, back to the toss thing, if you knew the home side were choosing, you could prepare a flat track, they bat, and then use scoreboard pressure to take 20 wickets.

46th over: India 114-5 (Rahane 18, Dhoni 2) Anderson will be relishing this over at Dhoni, and his first one is a tester, full and slanting in, almost drawing an edge. Then one moving away, then another that induces a fence - and leaves Dhoni, presumably to his relief. He then nudges the first two runs of the morning.

“Problem with alternating the choice of who bats”, emails James Gordon, “is that as soon as it becomes predictable in advance who chooses, the door is open to preparing pitches for the home team.”

45th over: India 112-5 (Rahane 18, Dhoni 0) Broad’snot quite found his range this morning - Rahane’s defending him and leaving him without undue concern. But still, a maiden. So, back to England and changing the team - or not changing the team. How should the side look in and for the next year or so? Mine: Cook, Hales, Ballance, Bell, Root, Ali, Buttler, Plunkett, Broad, Anderson, Finn.

44th over: India 112-5 (Rahane 18, Dhoni 0) Anderson’s first ball to Dhoni is a goodun, full again and leaving him, before a bouncer that he easily ignores. Warne, meanwhile, thinks Sharma was out - “look in the paper in the morning”, offers Beefy. “Sharma caught Buttler, bowled Anderson.”

“Agree with you about the toss”, says Nick Parish. “So why on earth don’t they institute the not-entirely-revolutionary concept that the captains toss for the first match as usual but thereafter the choice alternates between them? It wouldn’t even things out in series with odd numbers of tests, and of course some tosses are more important than others, but it would still be a massive increase in fairness. Surely the loss of the TV spectacle that is the toss wouldn’t matter that much to the TV cameras, would it?”

I’d be happy with that - though there’s a wider question: are we aiming to limit chance as much as possible, or is that part of the game?

WICKET! Sharma c Buttler b Anderson 6 (India 112-5)

No redemption for Rohit. Anderson’s third ball is very nice indeed, perfect seam, full, swinging away, and tickling the outside edge with imperceptible gentleness. Well, imperceptible if you’re Rohit, who stands his ground and looks indignant, less so if you’re the umpire or slip cordon. Snicko sides with the majority.

43rd over: India 112-4 (Rahane 18, Sharma 6) Broad begins with a yorker, blocked by Rahane, then swings two away, demanding no shot. He’s got three slips and a gully, and there’s a brief suggestion that he’ll need one when Rahane edges - but it’s with soft hands, for he is a gentle lover, and the ball doesn’t carry.

“Sorry to drag up ancient history but the rantings yesterday about Jacques Kallis not being a great because he was no Sir Garfield Sobers were a bit like saying Saint Peter was rubbish because he was no Jesus”, reckons Bob Miller. “He averages more with with the bat than Tendulkar in both tests and ODIs while taking about 500 wickets.He’s in the all-star team for the last 20-odd years without even taking his jumper off to bowl.”

“Good morning from Sunny Milano,” chirps Finbar Anslow. “Are there any statistics about the advisability of dropping members of a winning team? I mean in the event of it happening does the team usually win or lose the subsequent match?”

Anyone? I wonder if England selected for this game with Old Trafford in mind. Last summer, neither Anderson nor Broad got much off the pitch, but the slightly quicker Harris did. So, perhaps they’ve rested Plunkett with that in mind, while also wondering whether Anderson might be absent.

Preamble. Life often seems fairly complicated. Really, what is it, what are we, and how are the two connected? Thousands of years of expert debate have failed to settle upon any kind of answer, and in the meantime, amateurs are simply expected to get on with both.

And the confusion does not remain in macro, dominating the biggest questions, but leaving the rest alone. Rather, it infiltrates and permeates the micro, until it’s impossible to know anything, if anything can be known.

Unless, of course, that’s all a load of nonsense, and all we have is a succession of binary choices. Yes or no. Do or don’t do. Jump or step off. Attack or defend. Squares or Hoops. Instinct or intellect. Play or miss. Heads or tails.

Heads or tails. Cricket captaincy is often presented as a complex, instinctive, specialist, shamanic business, that you can either do or you can’t. It’s not. In a game of cricket, there are a limited number of variables that reoccur in various forms, and a limited number of responses with which they can be met; learning both is not that difficult. And sometimes, it can be as simple as calling heads or tails correctly, or someone else calling it incorrectly.

In Australia in the winter, Alastair Cook called incorrectly on four consecutive occasions, and England lost heavily on four consecutive occasions. In Hampshire on Sunday, MS Dhoni called incorrectly once, and India are poised to lose heavily once.

Of course, that isn’t everything, but the principal reasons it isn’t everything are no more sorcerous than the toss of a coin. Even in cricket, where captains actually do specific things, the principal means through which they help their team is by playing cricket well. In this Test, starting right from the beginning, Alastair Cook has played cricket well.

And, whether by coincidence or not, those under his leadership have responded. Unlike football, say, cricket is a game of individual rather than collective conflicts, and one that stops and starts - deeds are not inspirational in the same way, because they rarely connect, because the flow is different. So Cook’s bowlers suddenly relocating the ability to bowl says far more of them than it does him; but his use of them suggests an ability to learn. Limited variables, limited responses.

But facts are facts: Cook’s runs gave England the platform from which to dominate this game, and them the scope to perform. Or, put another way, Cook scoring runs is a viable captain of England, no longer a teabag with muscles, but a captain of England.